Styx: Shards of Darkness Gets March 2017 Release Date & New Trailer

French pair Cyanide Studio and Focus Home Interactive just announced via press release that Styx: Shards of Darkness will be out in March 2017 for Pc, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is a direct sequel to the stealth game Master of Shadows, first released in October 2014; the game is powered by Unreal Engine 4 this time around.

To celebrate the news, Cyanide and Focus also shared a brand new gameplay trailer that shows titular goblin Styx in three different locations: the hunters’ village of Wildoran, the secret sanctuary of Dark Elven City Korrangar and Thoben, city of thieves.

You can now pre-order the game on Steam (with a 10% discount) and get the Akenash set, allowing the goblin protagonist to don the outfit and dagger from his previous adventure.

Styx’s second adventure builds upon the foundations laid in the tower of Akenash, with more fluid movement and climbing abilities, a richer story told with cinematics including an enhanced bestiary, side-missions to complete, as well as new and improved sneaking and assassination skills.

The titular goblin’s aerial abilities have been improved and expanded. Swing from ropes and attack from above with a slew of new tools such as the crossbow, with a range of different bolts such as the non-lethal poison bolt. The crossbow can be used not only to kill or disable enemies, but also to detach environmental objects crushing those below.

Cloning is one of Styx’s signature abilities, and they’ve received a major upgrade. One of the new upgradeable abilities is the cocoon, which is a craftable item that you can throw to spawn your clone at a distance. Another new ability is called Rebirth, which teleports Styx to his clone’s location, killing it in the process. It can be used in a number of ways – to travel to spots that are difficult to reach, or to get out of danger when things get dicey.

You will need to use all of Styx’s tools and abilities to get to your goals. If you choose to specialize in crafting, Styx gets access to another craftable contraption, the Acid Trap, which dissolves enemy corpses after they step on them. This is particularly useful against enemies whose armor cannot be penetrated by Styx’s dagger, and enemies whose body is too heavy to carry.